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Whitecaps hope to end struggles at Galaxy

Jun 5, 2015 - 8:25 PM Carson, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Vancouver Whitecaps FC continue their five- game road trip at the StubHub Center on Saturday as the club squares off with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Vancouver kicked off its five-game journey on Wednesday night with a frustrating 2-1 defeat at the Montreal Impact as the Whitecaps scored the equalizing goal in the 79th minute through Pedro Morales, only for Ignacio Piatti to net the winner four minutes later for the hosts.

Despite enjoying some good spells of possession and getting the better of the play for large chunks of the contest, head coach Carl Robinson was left attempting to figure out how his team came away from the game with zero points.

The boss was pleased with his team's performance in the match, but ultimately disappointed with the result.

"I can't fault the performance, the way we played. I can fault the result because we didn't win," Robinson said after the defeat.

Vancouver has lost three of its last four games, and Robinson decided to make a few changes ahead of Wednesday's match with his team facing a string of games in a short period of time.

"Today, I decided to freshen it up because it's the right thing to do," Robinson said of the changes in the team. "The energy in the team was good, the performance was good, so it was the right thing to do. We lost, so I'll have to accept that and will take responsibility for that."

Los Angeles comes into the match having earned seven points from its last three games and the Galaxy is coming off a 2-2 draw at the New England Revolution last weekend.

All four goals were scored in the first half with Ignacio Maganto and Gyasi Zardes on target for the Galaxy, and although the team was hit with a few more injury issues, head coach Bruce Arena was pleased his side was able to come away with a point.

"Well it's a good point on the road," Arena said of the result. "This game tonight was hectic, crazy, out of control, not an easy game. I give our guys credit. Going down a goal in the early minutes and being able to get a point out of it against a good team, it's a good result, a good week for us with two wins and a draw."

Arena's men will have six days between games to rest, but it still may not be enough for the team's thin defensive corps to recover.

Zardes and goalkeeper Jaime Penedo will be away on international duty, while defenders Todd Dunivant, Robbie Rogers and A.J. DeLaGarza were joined on the injury list by Dan Gargan last weekend, with the status of all four players up in the air ahead of Saturday's match.

Vancouver won the first meeting between the teams this season, snapping a five-match winless run against the Galaxy.

Los Angeles enters Saturday's match having won all six of regular-season meetings between the sides at home, outscoring the Whitecaps 13-1.